Fossil Fuels

Sustainability, lasting recovery, and other myths

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For the world economy to be considered sustainable; that is, to reach and maintain a decent level of living for the entire global population for a century or two, the use of renewable resources should not exceed sustainable yields; pollution levels should not surpass the environment’s absorbing/regenerating capacity; the drawdown of nonrenewable resources should decline in proportion with the depletion of stocks; and environmental goals and technical progress helping to achieve them ought to gain universal application.

Into the Widening Gyre: Social Marketing Meets Peak Oil (book review)

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While reading Gerald Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman’s Marketing Metaphoria: What deep metaphors reveal about the minds of consumers, (MM), I recalled a healthcare consultant who told me, “You really should market peak oil, but you’ve got to give folks some good news to win them over.” I laughed and replied, “Are you kidding? I’m not selling whiter teeth”…

Commentary: The Redundant Subsidy

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Even for staunch proponents of U.S. biofuel policy, it is hard to argue that the current subsidy on grain ethanol serves the purpose it was designed to serve. With ethanol mandates now in place in the form of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), there is a mechanism – with penalties for non-compliance – to ensure that gasoline blenders use the mandated amount of ethanol. Maintaining a subsidy on top of a mandate would be like paying people to obey the speed limit.

Peak demand: The cornucopians reach for a fig leaf

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Over the past decade oil optimists repeatedly forecast a glut in oil supplies that kept failing to materialize. Now, they are reaching for a fig leaf hoping no one will remember their consistently errant predictions. That fig leaf is the idea that we have reached peak demand, and that that’s the reason we have not seen oil production rise in the past several years.

Peak oil & supplies – Feb 20

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-Barclays and Bank of America see looming oil crunch
– China’s CNPC in Iran gas deal
-Saudi Arabia fears a peak in oil demand – and it’s going green, sort of
– OPEC strategy reveals that they’re 100% short-term focused, and sure Of peak oil

ODAC Newsletter – Feb 19

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The mood amongst oil company executives meeting in London this week for the Petroleum Week conference was largely bullish, with global oil demand expected to recover this year as the world economy crawls out of recession. But the production side of the equation is becoming increasingly difficult and expensive…

Interview with Dr. Colin Campbell

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Zone5 Podcast #3 with Dr. Colin Campbell on Peak Oil, the Financial Collapse, Adaptation and What the Future May Hold. Colin Campbell, founder of the Association for the Study of peak Oil and Gas, is officially retired from his career as oil geologist and Peak Oil pundit but kindly agreed to this interview for the zone5 podcast.